This morning we went on a wat tour through the old city of Chiang Mai, but first, we went on an ATM search. We had read that the ATM at the Tesco Lotus store was supposed to not charge a fee. We eventually found our way to it, after getting a bit lost. Unfortunately, the ATMs all had a service fee. Disappointed, we headed back into the old city and visited 5 wats including Wat Phra Singh, which is one of Chiang Mai's most famous wats. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of the other wats. At the first wat, when we were ready the sign, a nice Thai man came and started chatting. Part way through, we figured what he was trying to sell us - a tuk tuk tour in this case. We politely declined and went into the wat. At another wat, I was offered a tuk tuk tour to a painted umbrella factory and tile factory. At the wat's, we saw multiple gold Buddhas of all sizes, a a reclining Buddha and an emerald Buddha.

After the wat tour, we headed back to the hotel for a swim and then were picked up for our evening Thai cooking class at Baan Thai Cookery School, which was within walking distance from our guesthouse

. After selecting the 4 courses that we were going to make, we went on a tour to the local market, which was full of people from other cooking schools! We were wondering if this market had just been set up for the cooking schools. At this market, we were introduced to the various Thai herbs, vegetables and chilies that are common in Thai cooking. We have noted to come back here as there were some interesting snacks that might be good for our trip to Laos.

We then headed back to the school to start cooking. In order to maximize the dishes that we could try, Jeff and I each cooked different items. I made, hot and sour soup, papaya salad, fried cashew chicken and Chiang Mai noodles with chicken while Jeff made chicken in coconut milk soup, spring rolls, stir-fried prawn with curry powder and panaeng curry with pork. Unfortunately, we both made several of our dishes way to spicy! Those little chilies have quite the kick. My hot and sour prawn soup was so spicy that I couldn't even eat it. We received cookbooks and I could definitely see myself making the fried cashew nuts with chicken and the papaya salad (you can use cucumbers or apples instead of green papaya). Overall, we thought this was a great experience - we had never done anything like this before. However, at the end we were both stuffed, which is a first for the meals that we've had in Thailand.